Many reputed scientists and medical researchers in India have expressed fear that the new regulations on the use of animals for research work will pose a major setback to the emerging areas of biotechnology and biomedicine in the country. The new rules, notified recently, aim at reducing cruelty to animals. Scientists and researchers, protesting against them, say the move would put a full stop to all biomedical research in India.

In the words of Dr. Ramlinga-swami, "Much of today’s knowledge of the functioning of the human body and mind is derived from animal experiments. The proposed rules work against facilitating science and scientific research. All over the world, it is realised that research and development holds the key to competitiveness and economic growth."

As an example, consider the case of the dog that helped heart surgeons develop and perfect artificial valves for replacement in the human heart. Damage to the aortic valve—the valve in the main artery from the heart to other organs in the body—is one of the deadliest heart ailments. Researchers felt that a plastic or metal valve made of material accepted by the human body, might be useful to bypass the damaged valve. The idea was mechanically sound, but researchers could not risk using an untested theory on human beings. So surgeons removed a section of a dog’s aorta and inserted the world’s first experimental valve. The dog lived for three years thereafter.

Further research and experiments on artificial valves on dogs resulted in perfecting the valves as well as the procedure. Today, these valves are made in India and thousands of people are alive and working because many animals laid down their lives during the research. Many people who had broken their bones are now walking with metal rods in their bodies. Dogs again were responsible for this successful research in stainless steel body implants. Also those suffering from various eye and ear disorders are alive today, because in attacking these ailments researchers experimented with monkeys and chimpanzees, whose body make-up is most similar to ours.

White rats or guinea pigs are also commonly used in medical research. Rats were used to study the effect of saccharine and laxatives in humans. Toxicologists contend that a chemical that causes cancer in rats or other animals is likely to do the same in humans.

Vitamin requirements, too, are usually determined by experiments using rats, chicks, dogs, and guinea pigs in which the increase in the animals’ body weight is related to the amounts of vitamins in their diets. Dissection of frogs is carried out in schools and colleges by students who study biology with a view to join medical college. The aim is to get the students used to the sight of blood and tissues as they advance in their studies and before they try their scalpel on a human patient. The use of animals has not been limited to medical research alone.

In the Draize test, developed in the 1940s, a substance is dropped into a rabbit’s eyes to determine eye damage and rate of recovery. Rabbits are used because their eyes produce no tears; thus blinking will not wash away an irritant. Guinea pigs, too, were used for testing after shave lotions in a most atrocious manner.